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I agree with you -- there's no doubt that many things have changed for the worse and I firmly believe that much of that perception is not a 'shifting baseline' artefact of my development and accumulated filters (you know how, when revisiting sites or people remembered from childhood, everything seems so much smaller). I grew up in the country, for the most part, but whether there or in the 'burbs my kidhood was also marked by an extreme freedom that I just can't believe that kids today could ever know.
Sure, where I grew up was definitely a pretty placid place (a rare murder, for example, was at that time -- but not these days -- big news for many, many years) but bad things have always happened all over the place and I know that if I had a child I wouldn't allow them such free rein...well, certainly unless I lived in one of a few places that I can think of that might still exist in a time warp in this respect. It wasn't that my parents weren't responsible, either, it's just that the time and place was so radically different and I seriously doubt that I would have developed the same interests (career included) if I were as closeted and 'protected' as would be prudent in many of today's communities, certainly urbanized ones. I was out in ther bush and away on the water all day, often without even telling my parents, and going on a multiday hike with my best friend was not even blinked at.
This was not the '40s or '50s that I'm talking about, either, but the '70s. We used to go away on long vacations and leave the doors unlocked -- people I now know from megalopolis LA also did so during the same time, unbelievably enough -- but that's not really sane behavior for most of us these days.
Things have changed and, advances in medicine and technology and certain social and environmental improvements aside, much has changed for the worse. Drugs in schools, guns in schools...this stuff just didn't happen before, and since the '80s it's been happening among younger and younger kids.
On the other hand, yes, it's very easy to romanticize the 'old days.' Or, perhaps more accurately, the days that are anything but these days, future included. Also, I think it's more than possible that being a kid is almost always going to be inherently more pleasant and carefree than being an adult -- all else aside, the emotional battering that many of us receive (romantic and otherwise) combines with fiscal concern and "what am I doing with my life" to make memories of childhood a very attractive refuge. I know that I would definitely rather be ten or eleven right now, if everything could be as it was then.
As always, I think the truth's somewhere in the middle, exact position depending upon the individual and where and when they grew up.
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